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Rescue the Census

Congressional investigators recently outlined 13 issues for President-elect Barack Obama to focus on without delay. Most are obvious, such as military readiness, homeland security, financial regulation and Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The 2010 census also made it onto the urgent 13. It deserves to be there.

As with any huge undertaking, the census requires years of planning, but preparations have been systematically sidetracked during the Bush years. The most plausible explanation, beyond incompetence, is that the administration aimed to make it even more difficult than usual to count hard-to-count groups, like minorities, immigrants and the poor, who tilt Democratic. Their numbers, if accurately gauged, could reshape electoral maps.

The White House, with the early support of a Republican-led Congress, shortchanged and delayed financing for the Census Bureau. The administration left top bureau positions unfilled for long stretches and allowed political judgment to dominate bureau management, which damaged morale and impaired performance.

The Census Bureau is currently on its third director in eight years, its third deputy director and its third decennial director, the point person for the 2010 census. None of those senior managers have ever led a nationwide census, and two of them — the deputy and the decennial director — assumed their posts last October. The lack of experience is especially disturbing given that test runs and other preparatory steps for the upcoming census have been scaled back or canceled in the past year.

To put the nation on track for an accurate census, President-elect Obama should nominate a new census director as soon as possible, and the incoming Senate should fast track the nominee’s confirmation hearing.

The new director should be a social scientist with proven leadership ability on large projects executed under pressure. That’s a short list. Kenneth Prewitt, who directed the 2000 census and earned acclaim for its innovation and accuracy, is the obvious choice. Mr. Obama and the American people would be well-served if Mr. Prewitt were offered, and accepted, the position.

The importance of the census cannot be overstated. Among other uses, it determines the number of congressional representatives from each state, the boundaries of congressional districts and the allocation of hundreds of billions of dollars in annual federal aid to states and localities. The census also tells us who we are as a nation and how we’ve changed — information we need to build a strong society and a strong democracy.

A version of this editorial appears in print on , on page A42 of the New York edition with the headline: Rescue the Census. Today's Paper|Subscribe